


House of Cards

by reader1718



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-08
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-03-05 13:42:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3122330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reader1718/pseuds/reader1718





	House of Cards

#  House of Cards

One day Riff and the Jets were walking through the city of New York on their way to Doc’s Candy Store, when they ran into a young boy who was wandering down the street with his head down, not looking where he was going. “Oops. Sorry about that,” the young teen said apologetically, fiddling with a stray strand of his hair. “Hey, how come you look so sad,” Riff asked him. “Oh, it’s my family. We had another disagreement last night,” the young teen replied. “Surely it can’t be that bad. What’s your name? What’s your family like? Where do you live?” Riff asked him. “Yes it is. I’m Tony. I’d rather not talk about my family or where I live, though. I really don’t like my parents much,” Tony replied. He then refused to say anything more about them at all. This went on for several days, until finally the boys got tired of his refusal to talk about them and decided to find out on their own what his life was truly like.

The next day, Tony went home as usual, but this time he had some unnoticed company—Riff and the boys in the Jets gang. They followed him to Empire State Towers, one of the ritziest apartment buildings in New York. Riff couldn’t believe it—Tony was rich and he hung out with them? What was up with that? Why would a kid who could afford to live there hang around with gang members? It was a puzzle. Who on earth were Tony’s parents if they could afford to live in a ritzy apartment building like this?

 

The following day, Riff and the boys confronted Tony with their new knowledge of where he lived and his social status as a result of living there. Tony finally was forced to admit that his last name was Kingston and LeRoi and Regina Kingston were his parents. He even admitted that he had a sister named Alyssa and a brother named Pacian. He still refused to say much more about them, though. However, he did admit that the reason he hung around with them was because he hated his home environment: arguing with his father, his mother attempting to tell him he’d understand when he grew up and started his own family, his sister and brother either staying out of it or supporting their father. Just then, Tony’s pager went off and he had to leave again.

Riff pitied his friend having to live in such an awful environment, but even though he had tried to convince Tony to leave his family if he was so unhappy, but Tony claimed he couldn’t. He wouldn’t say why, though. What Riff and the boys didn’t know was that the Kingstons had a secret—when night fell over the city, the five Kingstons became the infamous Royal Flush Gang, a gang notorious in Gotham and many other cities for dressing as the cards in a royal flush and stealing items related to playing cards, after which they would escape on flying scooters shaped like playing cards. Tony was ashamed of this, but he didn’t know how in the world to get out of the gang, though he prayed every day for a way out. 

At long last, a way came. While he was out roaming the city one day, he went and applied for a job at Doc’s Candy Store. He hoped that this would enable him to get out of living with his family by providing a way to find his own place to live and provide for himself. He had to tell Doc about his criminal past, of course, but Doc hired him on condition that he stop his criminal ways, which Tony was only too happy to do. Tony had very little contact with his family after that, but if he heard the Royal Flush Gang had been sighted, he would go off to the location to attempt to talk his brother and sister into quitting the gang. So far, he hadn’t succeeded, but he was hoping that tonight he would. Unfortunately, Tony didn’t know that his old friends, the Jets, were walking around down below and had stopped to stare at the elaborately dressed gang members. As a result, they saw Tony sneak up the side of the building and walk right up to the gang. Tony began trying to get the attention of Ace and Ten immediately, and both of them went to talk to him. This left Riff and the others puzzled, as they couldn’t think why on earth anyone in the Royal Flush Gang would talk so casually to Tony. They made a note to ask him about it the next day when they saw him.

The next day, they asked Tony about what they had seen the previous night, and Tony knew he was caught. He finally admitted that Ace and Ten were his brother and sister, and that King and Queen were his parents. He tried to convince them that he was attempting to go straight, but they weren’t quite sure what to believe. Just then, a pretty young girl about Tony’s age with short braided black hair came into the store along with another boy about two years younger than Tony. Tony appeared shocked to see them. “Alyssa! Pace! What are you two doing here?” Tony asked in surprise. “Well, we thought about what you said last night after we got home and realized you were right, that we needed to quit before we got in so deep that we couldn’t get out. We want to get jobs and earn an honest living like you do. You think you could help us to find some. We both promise not to steal or do anything illegal,” Alyssa replied. “Sure, I’ll help you, but you better keep your promise,” Tony said, not willing to necessarily take what they said at face value. Pacian promised that they would.

The next week and the next came and went, and Alyssa and Pacian both stayed on the straight and narrow, despite the temptation to steal from their employers. Alyssa worked at a restaurant just up the street from Doc’s, and had gotten Pace a job there as well. Pace worked in the kitchen, while Alyssa was a waitress. This meant they could eat lunch together each day in the restaurant. Then one day, something happened that started with Tony, but would inevitably change the lives of all three of the Kingston siblings.

One day, Tony was working and a young couple came in. Tony had seen them in Doc’s store before, but had never paid them much attention. Now, however, he did. The couple started to talk to him, asking him all kinds of questions about who he was, where he lived, whether his parents approved of his choice of occupation. Tony answered them as best he could, trying to avoid telling them about his criminal past, but eventually the questions led to him telling them the truth about his involvement in the Royal Flush Gang. He was surprised when the Wyzeks—for that was the couple’s name—offered to adopt him, so he wouldn’t be dependent on his job to live. Tony was happy to go with them, but he told them about his brother and sister, and asked if there was something they could do to help them since they were in the same situation he was. The young couple, who had been looking to adopt more children anyway, agreed to consider adopting Pacian and Alyssa as well. It worked out well for them that the three kids were siblings. One look at Pacian and Alyssa and the couple fell in love with them both. Not long after, the three renegade Royal Flush gang members found a new home with a new family, a family who lived by their own means, not by stealing what others had.

The End


End file.
